Icarium was known under many names: Lifestealer,[1] the maker of machines, the chaser of time, lord of the sand grains.[2]Fiddler recalled the legend of "a Jaghut-blood wanderer around whom swirled, like the blackest wake, rumours of devastation, appalling murders, genocide".[3]

Contents

Family

Icarium was a mixed-blood Jaghut,[4] a Jhag, the son of the Jaghut Gothos. The only thing that was known about his mother was that she was a member of the Thelomen Toblakai race. It was implied that Icarium might have been the son of Kilmandaros.

Appearance

Icarium - Wrath of Time by Shadaan

Icarium was described as seven feet tall, but not excessively muscled. His skin was grey, turning to an olive-green colour under intense sun. He had a lined, weather-worn face with grey eyes, and his canines were prominent, almost tusks. He had long, braided grey hair which he kept dyed black at times.[5][6][7] The resemblance between he and his father was unmistakeable.[8]

Abilities

Icarium was known across the Malaz world as The Slayer, a dangerous being whose rage signified unconstrained destruction. He carried an ancient single-edged longsword sheathed in a bronze-banded boiled-leather scabbard, as well as an antlered hornwood longbow with warren-etched stone-tipped arrows,[9] capable of killing even a dragon. When enraged, Icarium was able to draw on his anger as a form of power, making him lightning fast, tireless, able to withstand extremely powerful magic attacks, and forcing him to kill relentlessly until all around him was lifeless. This fate befell the city of Shikimesh, for example. When the Jhag was on the verge of raging he emitted a deathly high-pitched keening sound and his sword began to take on a strange shivering blur.[10]

His destructive abilities also brought about the annihilation of the city of E'napatha N'apur, a major city in the Seven Cities. A misfired arrow took the life of his travelling companion, enraging him and Icarium killed everyone within the city.[11]

History

Little was known of Icarium's history. He had wandered the world for millennia. In his early youth, his father[14] the Jaghut Gothos, took up residence inside a House of the Azath. Icarium, abandoned and not understanding his father's actions, first wandered into the place that would become the city of Letheras. He met K'rul, but did not find answers that would lead him to his father.[15] Later, he assaulted the Azath House where his father was. It was at that time that Icarium's legendary rage was unleashed. Icarium almost destroyed the Azath and his efforts left him in a delirious state.

"It is less a curse, than a…residue. The death of an Azath House releases all manner of forces, energies – not just those belonging to the denizens in their earthen tombs. There is, burned into Icarium’s soul, something like an infection, or, perhaps, a parasite. Its nature is chaos, and the effect is one of discontinuity. It defies progression, of thought, of spirit, of life itself. Mappo, that infection must be expunged, if you would save Icarium."

―Cotillion, speaking to Mappo Trell regarding how Icarium contracted his condition, and how it can be cured[src]

At some point Icarium wounded the warren Kurald Emurlahn leaving it open for the destruction and shattering that was visited upon it. This act in turn wounded him mentally, causing him to lose his memory whenever he flew into a rage. He wandered the world suffering from amnesia constantly searching for answers to his past. Cotillion stated that Icarium could be healed through the help of his guide Mappo Runt.

The group known as the Nameless Ones decided that he was too dangerous to allow to wander unsupervised, and so had taken it upon themselves to recruit his "guardians", such as Mappo Runt the Trell and later Taralack Veed of the Gral. Their task was to protect Icarium from the world, and protect the world from Icarium. The Jhag had many companions over his lifetime and sensed that he had betrayed or killed them.[16] The last before Mappo had taken his own life.[17]

Some time during the Nameless Ones' stewardship of Icarium they began to subtly increase his power and deadliness, transforming him into a weapon that they could use toward their own hidden goals. When Icarium was recruited by the Tiste Edur as a Challenger to the emperor, en route, he assaulted the First Throne. There he came into contact with the Eres'al, who healed the mental damage/scarring from his wounding of Kurald Emurlahn.

Icarium was worshipped by the people of the Cabal Archipelago, who saw him as their One God.

He was obsessed with time and was responsible for creating many complicated mechanisms to measure it over the millennia.[18] He was the builder of the Wheel of Ages in Darujhistan[19] as well as a device found in the ruins of a First Empire city.[20]

By accident they discovered the gate sought by the shape-shifters within Tesem, a temple of Shadow occupied by High Priest Iskaral Pust. Pust schemed to keep the gate hidden and he manipulated the Jhag and his companion into serving as its powerful guardians.[24] They were soon joined at the temple by Fiddler, Apsalar, and Crokus. Icarium and Mappo sought to reunite Apsalar with her father Rellock and promised to lead Fiddler and Crokus to the Azath HouseTremorlor.

Along the way, they passed through the ruins of an ancient First Empire city that still contained one of Icarium's mechanisms. The Jhag was astonished to discover that the device was 94,000 years old, and Mappo could not bear to tell him that Icarium had been responsible for the city's ruin.[25] Ultimately, Mappo revealed to Icarium his history of destructive rages and the Jhag came to believe that imprisonment within the Azath would be a just punishment for his crimes.[26]

Arriving at Tremorlor, they fought their way through hordes of Soletaken and D'ivers with the aid of the Hounds of Shadow. All the while Mappo struggled to keep Icarium from raging or from becoming imprisoned by the house. After entering the house and passing into the Azath warren, Icarium and Mappo were separated from the others and soon found themselves near the village of Balahn on the Aren Way. Icarium no longer remembered the events of the last few days or Mappo's admission, and so they headed westward into the Jhag Odhan on their never-ending search for answers.[27]

Icarium was taken by the Tiste Edur to Drift Avalii to help them take the Throne of Shadow. There, Icarium went berserk. To stop him from hurting the army of Shadowthrone, which was composed of children, he was brought to a temporary standstill by Trull Sengar's excellent spearsmanship. However, Trull was overcome. Icarium then faced Quick Ben who would have failed to stop Icarium were it not for the intervention of Eres'al. She rendered him unconscious and healed his mental wounds that had been afflicted after he had wounded Kurald Emurlahn.[28]

Bereft of his companion Mappo, Icarium was led to the continent of Lether by Taralack Veed, an Agent of the Nameless Ones, who intended to use Icarium as a weapon to destroy the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, the Edur Emperor Rhulad Sengar. However, before this could be accomplished, Icarium disappeared into an ancient mechanism, apparently of his own devising.

The ancient mechanism into which Icarium disappeared, was later thought to have been devised to re-structure the Warrens when activated, causing unpredictable reactions when mages accessed their Warrens on Lether. Icarium reappeared in an ancient K'Chain Che'Malleskykeep during the pivotal battle between the Nah'ruk and the Che'Malle, helping to destroy numerous Nah'ruk skykeeps and seal the portal through which the Nah'ruk were attacking, leaving them trapped to die.

After the battle, Icarium was found unconscious and pinned to the ground by the Forkrul Assail, Sister Calm. She intended to use him as a weapon of last resort to cleanse the world of all human life. Mappo was killed by Sister Calm when he came within sight of his friend. Icarium was saved and released by Ublala Pung, who defeated and killed Sister Calm. He left with Ubala Pung and Ralata, after staring at the body of Mappo and stating in a voice heavy with emotion that he had remembered something.

Speculation

The Azath House that scarred Icarium may have been Tremorlor. Icarium's legends stated he came from Raraku, home of Termorlor, and Iskaral Pust claimed the House held together a knotted, torn piece of warren.[29]

Quotes

"...could Icarium be killed? Could he die? He was not immortal, after all –although it could be argued that his rage was, the rage of the victim, generation after generation, a rage against injustice and inequity, and such a thing was without end."